I had to vote for 1e. I first started playing D&D back with BECMI but moved to 1st edition AD&D rather quickly. I didn't mind 2e but my love was for 1e (even if I various 2e stuff in my games). I stopped playing D&D back in the late 80s when Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu became my group's to-go game. 3e brought me back to D&D and I rather liked it for awhile. As a DM, I lost interest in it (and 3.5)...

Here is the other main NPC that rounds out the party (along with Rustov, Cleric of Pelor), plus a temporary NPC I used for a short time.
Sabah Ravenheart, Human Rogue (Assassin) NPC
For a short while, Sabah was unavailable to go adventuring with the party due to guild commitments. During that time, the party allied themselves with a wandering Monk (Kensei) named Yang-ji. Sabah is...

I use basic text character sheets of my own creation in my game. I create them in Open Office and convert to PDF to print/share. Click on image for PDF. Only 2 pages are shown in the images but there are 5 pages total: primary sheet, proficiencies/equipment page, features/traits page, personality/background page, and a spell sheet.
Blank Character Sheet
Rustov ("Alewynd"), Cleric of Pelor...

I found this image online (H/T the original artist).
That got me thinking about hell hounds. Take the Hell Hound monster write-up, add Damage Immunity (Poison) and swap out the fire damage for poison damage (DC 12 Constitution saving throw) in a cloud of poisonous gas. A quick name change and we have... Stygian Hounds.
So if this Hell Hound variant uses a poisonous cloud breath...

And here is something a bit different for the May 10th, 2019 Friday Freebie map. Click to enlarge.
Map Details:
* This map is a small island chain.
* The DM maps shows all. The PC Map is bare bones at best. It leaves room for the players to fill in the hexes as they explore the islands.

A quick recap: In my Jebli Pit (Goblin Pit) adventure, I have two primary factions vying for control of the dungeon with the players in the middle. The original inhabitants of the dungeon are members of the Devil's Hand (a cult of Asmodeus) and the goblins (and hobgoblins) came later in an attempt to take control of the place that they found abandoned. The players have weakened the goblins and...

I created these goblin assassins pretty early in my campaign to give the characters some variation in goblin opponents. I originally called them Shadowblades but once I realized that 5e had Drow Shadowblades, I changed their name to Shadowbones. This works better since their preferred weapon are their bone daggers (covered with serpent venom).
When I first used them, I had them high up on a...

The Free Town of Parthaldi is located on the Artonsamay River. It straddles the river that divides the border between the County of Urnst and the Bandit Kingdoms. The County of Urnst is ruled by the Countess Belissica of House Gellor. The immediate area on the northern bank of the river is controlled by Duke Nebon Gellor (9th level Fighter). With the exception of the town of Pathaldi (which is of...

Wednesday, 15th May, 2019

...m in as a player there are two DMs that each do a lot of work to draw out detailed maps and tokens. There is very little theater of the mind, only occurring when we venture somewhere that doesn't have a prepared map. Even out of combat most of the action takes place on the maps and through descriptions of things as we view them from a top down angle. Music also plays a big part with the DM's curating a library in the Roll20 game.
In the game I play I don't prep nearly as much. Anything out of combat takes place in theater of the mind. In towns or during travel I will display some art that I grabbed from Google or a hex map of the surrounding area that I have made. For combat maps I grab as much as I can from the web though will sometimes produce my own battle maps using assets freely available (background textures + tokens). There are plenty of free dungeon maps online and I am starting to find I get more creative in dungeon design when I have a solid starting point. The threads by @Turgenev and @Dyson Logos here on the boards have saved me at the last minute a couple of times in this regard (you both do great work :)). I also also have a small collection of music that I've uploaded to Roll20 to have in the background for mood. In general though I run a much lighter game than the one I play in. Jokes and references are common (a lot of them come from me).

Friday, 8th March, 2019

I had someone ask me about the weird arrow slits to nowhere in the corridors that branch off Area 22. I said I call those arrow slits 'corridor nipples.' :D <j/k>
They are whatever the DM wishes them to be. I had a few ideas while drawing the map.
1) They are the source of a fireball (lightning bolt?) trap in each corridor,
2) Perhaps once the secret room is entered, the secret door disappears leaving only a stone wall and no way out of the chamber. To return the secret door, one would have to go through the trap infested corridors and reach into the small niches to turn a mechanism that makes the secret door return.
3) Perhaps the double door at area 26 is a portal to another realm/dungeon/plane. It is normally a false door but should the mechanism in those corridors be activated, then the false double door becomes a portal.
Cheers,
Tim
The other mystery to answer is why is room 27 almost, but not quite symmetrical? Is it perhaps, actually perfectly symmetrical, but the mis...

Monday, 7th January, 2019

Thanks for the thoughtful reply! Great stuff about Dionysus here. Euripides' Bacchae was the main reason I settled on Barbarian for him.
I just wanted to pull a few things out of your post to respond to.
The Berserker path could also work for Ares since he was also a god of not just war, but also courage and bloodlust. Ares presided the emotions that lead to violence: hatred and rage. Ares would also have been invoked in an attempt to calm those emotions. In past D&D games, I've re-skinned the Horn of Valhalla as the Horn of Ares.
Agreed, Ares would work well as the rage guy.
Surprisingly, I think Dionysus could also be connected to the Bard, College of Lore, since he was also celebrated as the god of plays and choral song.
I think that's where I'd put him too, if displaced by Ares, moving Apollo to Light Domain Cleric and Athena to Battle Master? I like how cleric references Athena's connection to wisdom, which is why I settled on my current formulation.
I could see Fighte...

Friday, 4th January, 2019

First a little background. Every Friday I release a free map since Halloween 2015. For example, here is the link to the current 2018 maps.
Tim,
I don't know if it's slipped my mind to say this until now, but thank you for this fantastic contribution to the community. Both you and Dyson Logos are phenomenal for the work you do, and I apologize for not noticing it sooner. Thank you again.

Tuesday, 4th December, 2018

The index to my older Creative Commons maps can be found here: http://paratime.ca/cartography/index.html
I organize my Friday Freebie maps by date. Each year gets its own 'index' page that has thumbnails of each map from that year.
http://paratime.ca/ff2018.html
http://paratime.ca/ff2017.html
http://paratime.ca/ff2016.html
http://paratime.ca/ff2015.html
Cheers,
Tim
Woah. I wouldn't have noticed your Creative Commons maps without the link. That's . . . a lot of maps.

Wednesday, 14th November, 2018

Thank you for the kind words about the cartography, brimmels. I'm a firm believer that while a map should be pleasant to the eyes*, it must also be functional for the DM. Doing the maps for Undermountain was a huge thrill for me.
* Naturally what looks nice varies from person to person (it is subjective in nature).
Cheers,
Tim Hartin
You have participated in the greatest dnd product ever. I have fallen in love as I sit here and read my copy. Your maps are old school excellence!

Saturday, 10th November, 2018

There are 23 more in the Dungeon of the Mad Mage book. Speaking of the same map style, every Friday I put up a new freebie map (with a commercial option as well) on my website: http://paratime.ca/friday.html
Nice work!
Do you know what the map pack maps will look like? Are they just loose leaf reprints of the maps you drew for the hardcover? Or are they a different size or different maps?

I can't wait to see this! Here is a pic that a friend sent me (click for larger version).
http://paratime.ca/images/dungeon-of-the-mad-mage_d-sm.jpg
For the record, I was the cartographer for this. *Waves hi.* .You sir are a true dnd warrior!

Friday, 9th November, 2018

I can't wait to see this! Here is a pic that a friend sent me (click for larger version).
http://paratime.ca/images/dungeon-of-the-mad-mage_d-sm.jpg
For the record, I was the cartographer for this. *Waves hi.*
I like it, wish it was color personally. But the style is very good.